Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut Reviews
Delightful spritework, fun characters, a phenomenal soundtrack, and so many poor design decisions it just makes me sad.
Ten years later, Risky's Revenge remains a solid, gorgeous action-platformer.
This is a little on the short side, taking me five hours to beat (more or less depending on your need to collect everything or desire to look up information). I find it’s priced reasonably and there is a post game magic mode. Enabling you to use more magic at the expense of half your defense. Which of course requires you to wear a very interesting outfit. If you like achieving things you do get the extra end screens based on your time and how many secret items you’ve found. Outside of some slippery monkey business, a difficult to read map and some annoying layers to jump through, this is a pretty good game.
Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut is not just “another one” in the Switch library: it's a game with its own style, charisma and identity that arrives at the hybrid ten years after its original release and relives the magic of one of the best adventures of the half-genie without giving up the charm of the 16-bit era.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
If our review convinced you, I wholeheartedly recommend giving Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut a try. And if you like it, I even more wholeheartedly recommend Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse (also available on Nintendo Switch). It does everything Risky’s Revenge does but even better — with a few gameplay changes, too.
Risky’s Revenge is a traditional Shantae experience, on a smaller scale. This is indeed a fun metroidvania with all the humour and charm of the latest Shantae games, a well-built world, and a unique cast. However, it’s difficult to forget we’re face to face with an old game, as compared to later entries Risky’s Revenge features less variety, an annoyingly simplistic map system and, of course, the several small improvements that WayForward made to the series with this game’s successors.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut brings back an old school and very challenging platformer, improving it with a new hi-res presentation layer. Other than this it doesn't change or improve the original game, but it remains a suggested buy for all lovers of the saga and action-platformers in general.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Overall, I quite enjoyed my time with Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut. It was a fun little Metroidvania-style adventure that took me the majority of 10 hours to complete. I collected all of the Magic Jams and got all of the abilities and perks from the shop. I had a lot of fun with the game, and it still holds up pretty well by today’s standards for the most part. The biggest flaw is probably just that it could use a better map system. You can download a copy from the Nintendo Switch eShop for $9.99. Can you put a stop to Risky Boots’ evil plot in order to save Sequin Land, Scuttle Town, and your uncle?
"Classic revenge story, but just a bit better than last time."
Review in Finnish | Read full review
Shantae: Risky’s Revenge clearly isn’t as featured-filled, polished, or exciting as its more modern counterparts, but it’s still well worth your time if you’re curious about the wonderful history of the Shantae franchise, or if you’re just a fan of 2D platformers in general. Why did this specific version need to have a brand new PlayStation 5 build is beyond me, as there is very little in here that justifies it being a “next-gen” game, but that doesn’t affect its overall quality.
Shantae: Risky’s Revenge still holds up well, and despite the fact that we have seen it ported before, its inclusion on the Switch was executed with love and finesse.
Having been introduced to the Shantae series on the Switch and enjoyed the hell out of each entry thus far a throwback title sounded interesting...
Shantae: Risky's Revenge is a modern classic and this Director's Cut version is a great way to play it on a contemporary console.
These are minor complaints, though. The platforming is rock solid, and as I noted, I love the theme with a passion. I would like to see WayForward do something more narrative-heavy with Shantae, as I think she would be a spectacular lead in a RPG or similar, but as it stands this is my favourite 2D platformer series of all, and I'm glad to see that it's now on PlayStation too.
Shantae: Risky's Revenge – Director's Cut is an overall solid game with charming gameplay and wonderful presentation values. It's hindered by its somewhat repetitive design, cumbersome map system and lack of innovation or surprises, but it still manages to offer a good time for anyone looking to delve into the newest Metroidvania release.
While this title may not take full advantage of the PlayStation 4 hardware, 'Shantae: Risky's Revenge Director's Cut' is an enjoyable platformer adventure that's worth the time for most anyone that enjoys the genre. It is not a perfect title, and it's also not a particularly long game, but anyone who considers themselves a fan of Metriodvanias, platformers, or wishes there was a sequel to 'Monster World IV,Shantae: Risky's Revenge Director's Cut PS4 review' should not hesitate to pick this up.
[T]he fact that this delightful game is now readily available to even more players through Steam means they can be glossed over by the majority that haven't had the pleasure of playing Risky's Revenge before. If this is a taster of what to expect in Shantae's next two adventures, platform fans are in for a treat.
I had a lot of fun playing through Risky's Revenge. And while it was ultimately a shorter experience than I'd have liked, it most definitely didn't wear out its welcome. A clever, charming Metroidvania with some intense platforming bits, Shantae: Risky's Revenge – Director's Cut is a must play for fans of the genre.
Risky's Revenge is very much the Australopithecus of the Shantae series-something of a transitional form between the GBC game and Pirate's Curse. It's fun to play if you're a fan of the series, but I'll say that the next three games easily eclipse it.
Part culmination of old-school classics, part a simplistic form of them all, Shantae: Risky's Revenge is not exactly the best title in WayForward's, otherwise charming, line of platformers. If a fan of Shantae do check it out, but you won't miss much by skipping it, and simply trying any other instalment - 2002 original included.